Gunman Kills 2 In Crowded Restaurant

Gunman Kills Man And Woman In Crowded Ansonia Restaurant

ANSONIA — A Navy cook strode into a crowded family restaurant Tuesday morning, killed two managers with at least 12 shots from a handgun and then surrendered to police.

Customers and employees scrambled to the floor or dashed to the exits of the Duchess Restaurant on Pershing Drive as a man identified by police as Michael J. Stokes Jr., 23, emptied a .45-caliber handgun, reloaded and fired some more.

Ansonia and state police said they did not know what prompted the shooting, but said they were investigating ties between Stokes and one of the victims, Wanda L. Salgado, 26, of 549 Howe St., Shelton.

"I heard a couple of popping noises. I thought the gas was exploding," said Marilyn Hornak, a cashier who was working when Stokes walked into the restaurant about 9:20 a.m. "A few seconds later, I saw him shooting the manager."

Sue Cruciani of Ansonia and her 2-year-old daughter were waiting for food when she saw Stokes enter.

"He said he wasn't going to hurt anybody," Cruciani said. She said somebody told Stokes he couldn't go behind the counter. "He said, `I have a reason to go back there,' " she said.

Patti Cirillo, a night shift worker who had stopped for coffee, said Stokes ordered everyone to get down. She said she hid under a table.

After shots were fired, she said she heard Stokes say: "Are you dead yet?"

Police received a string of 911 calls and officers surrounded the building. They ordered Stokes to drop his weapon and come out. He put the gun on the counter and came out.

Seven minutes after the shooting began, police arrested Stokes, who lives at 416 Roosevelt Drive, Oxford. He was charged with murder and is scheduled to be arraigned today in Derby Superior Court.

Det. Sgt. Floyd Morey, one of the officers who surrounded the

restaurant, said he saw Stokes through the windows, pacing.

"We were prepared for [a hostage situation]," he said. "I think he had a mission and he didn't want to hurt anybody else."

Stokes had known Salgado and her husband, police said, but they did not elaborate. The couple had been separated, police said.

Stokes and Salgado had worked together at a Duchess Restaurant in nearby Shelton in 1989. Salgado had lived in an apartment by the Housatonic River, a few miles from Stokes' boyhood home in Oxford.

The other victim, William Abate, 28, of 955 Mix Ave., Hamden, apparently had no ties to Stokes, police said.

"He was in the wrong place at the wrong time," said state police spokesman Master Sgt. Scott O'Mara.

Police ruled out an employee dispute as a motive.

"The disgruntled employee doesn't appear to be an element," O'Mara said. "He entered the restaurant with the specific purpose of locating her."

Stokes was on active duty, stationed at the U.S. Naval base in Groton, attached to the submarine Santa Fe, which has not been commissioned, said state police Lt. Timothy F. Barry of the major crime squad. Stokes has been in the Navy for the past year, Barry said.

Neighbors near Stokes' family home said they hadn't seen him in years. They said he used to deliver newspapers as a child and talked of becoming an astonaut.

"The nicest young man you'd ever want to meet," said Elsie Reilly, who lives across the street from the Stokes home, where no one answered the door Tuesday night.

Police said they did not know if Stokes had any previous psychiatric or disciplinary problems while in the service.

Stokes had bought the handgun about a month ago from a shop in the Naugatuck Valley, police said. They said he was not licensed to carry a firearm.

With so many witnesses, police were trying to piece together the sequence of events Tuesday. Hornak, the cashier, said Salgado was behind the register while Abate was in the back, cooking.

After police arrested Stokes, officers searched the area for more than a half hour to be sure that he had acted alone.

Dozens of teenage employees and customers hugged and cried outside the restaurant as state police gathered evidence inside. Some people stopped by to make sure friends and relatives had not been inside at the time of the shooting.

The restaurant is a popular spot for teenagers, mothers and senior citizens.

Many people, such as Barry Flax, go there every morning. Barry was inside Tuesday morning, said his sister, Mary.

"You don't think something like this happens," she said. She had stopped by the restaurant Tuesday afternoon to see if her friends were there.

Rita Jaffer of Ansonia usually goes to the restaurant in the morning. But she and the children were running late Tuesday.

"This is my home away from home," she said. "It's where everybody comes."